Since the turn of the century, Italian video game developer Milestone has been producing titles catering to the two-wheeled crowd. Starting with “Superbike World Championship” for the Windows platform in 1999, Milestone has created multiple motorcycle racing games simulating both Superbikes and MotoGP. In 2015 they introduced the Ride franchise, which offered a more street bike-oriented simulation experience, much like Gran Turismo does for cars. Milestone recently released the trailer for the fourth installment in the series, Ride 4.

The makers of Gran Turismo, Polyphony Digital, took a shot at the motorcycling genre with Tourist Trophy in 2006, which utilized their expertise in crafting the finest details into the machinery, and their extensive catalogue of tracks, to create the benchmark by which other motorcycle simulation games would be judged. Milestone’s Ride 3, released in 2018, was the heir apparent to Tourist Trophy, since Polyphony has never created a sequel to TT. Ride 3 combined a similar attention to detail and tracks as TT, with modern graphics capabilities, and added far more layers of rider and bike customization.

Ride 4 promises to continue the trend, with even higher levels of customization and even sharper graphics. The YouTube trailer showcases the realism of both the bikes and the environment of the new game, including night time and inclement weather scenes, but does not appear to show any actual gameplay.

One area that falls short to the keen eye, and indeed where most motorcycle video games miss the mark, is in the riding physics and rider body motions. Lean angles jump around unrealistically, and side-to-side transitions are artificially quick. This was an issue with Ride 3, and doesn’t seem to be much better judging by the Ride 4 trailer, although it will not be known if actual game play is improved until the game is released in October, 2020.

With a new career mode, night time and bad weather modes, an endurance racing mode, and improved AI opponents, Ride 4 promises to be a significant step forward for motorcycle enthusiasts looking to get their virtual game on. Visit ridevideogame.com for more details.

Credit: ridevideogame.com, motorcyclenews.com, rideapart.com